LISELOTTE KOPPITZ (1925–2011)
Kuppel 1 (Zirkus), ca. 1952
gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1952
17,5 x 17,7 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
LISELOTTE KOPPITZ (1925–2011)
Untitled (Portrait), ca. 1952
gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1952
23,5 x 29,6 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
LISELOTTE KOPPITZ (1925–2011)
Untitled (Hand), ca. 1952
gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1952
21,6 x 17,5 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
LISELOTTE KOPPITZ (1925–2011)
Der größenwahnsinnige Hund, ca. 1952
gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1952
30,5 x 30 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
LISELOTTE KOPPITZ (1925–2011)
Kuppel 2 (Zirkus), 1952
gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1952
21,3 x 17,7 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
GUNDULA SCHULZE ELDOWY (*1954)
Berlin, 1987
gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1987
39,8 x 60 cm
© Gundula Schulz Eldowy / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
Schwarzsee mit Kaisergebirge, ca. 1930
silver print postcard, printed ca. 1930
9,8 x 9,5 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
Heuernte in Tirol, ca. 1930
silver print postcard, printed ca. 1930
9,7 x 9,4
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
Sellajoch, Dolomiten, ca. 1930
silver print postcard, printed ca. 1930
10,3 x 9,5 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
Esche (Ash Tree), before 1914
multiple gum print, doublemounted on original cardboards
22,1 x 17,2 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
Der Alpenwanderer (Selbstportrait), ca. 1912
bromoil transfer print, printed ca. 1912
19,5 x 29,5 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
HEINRICH KÜHN (1866–1944)
Untitled (Hans and Lotte on lawn), ca. 1910
gum-bichromate print, printed ca. 1910
23,8 x 29,8 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
Tiroler Bauern / Murtaler, after 1930
silver bromide print
29 x 30,5 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
AENNE BIERMANN (1898–1933)
Untitled (Helga), ca. 1929
gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1929
16,7 x 12,5 cm
© Public Domain / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
Verzweiflung / Despair, ca. 1925
gelatin silver print on postcard paper, printed ca. 1930s
12,1 x 9,1 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
VÁCLAV ZYKMUND (1914–1984)
Nude with African mask (Marie), from the cycle 'Akty'/ 'Nudes', 1936-37
silver bromide print, printed ca. 1936-37
29,6 x 23,8 cm
© fotografie Václava Zykmunda / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
Aktstudie / Nude Study, ca. 1927-30
gelatin silver print on postcard paper, printed ca. 1927-30
13,8 x 6,5 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
ANNA AND RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
Knieender Akt, ca. 1925 - 1926
silver bromid print, printed ca. 1925
23,7 x 26,4 cm
© Estate of the Artists / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
WILLY ZIELKE (1902–1989)
Aktstudie einer Tänzerin / Dancer's Nude Study, ca. 1927-1929
gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1927-1929
21,8 x 15,2 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
FRANTISEK DRTIKOL (1883–1961)
Untitled (Nude with Circle), ca. 1927-29
gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1927-29
11,6 x 7,9 cm
© Růžena Knotková-Boková / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
Bewegungsstudie / Movement Study, 1925
gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1925
23,5 x 16,6 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
Der Steinwerfer / The Stonethrower, 1923
gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1923
20 x 17,5 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
JAN LUKÁS (1915–2006)
Untitled (Man rolling barrel), late 1930s
gelatin silver print, printed late 1930s
15,5 x 12,9 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
Mutter und Kind / Mother and Child, 1925
gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1925
35,5 x 29 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
Movement Study / Bewegungsstudie, 1925
brom gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1925
29,8 x 23,8 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
In the Bosom of Nature / Im Schoße der Natur, 1923
gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1923
22,2 x 16,6 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
HELMAR LERSKI (1870–1956)
Metamorphosis, 600, from the series 'Metamorphosis through Light', Tel Aviv, 1935-36
gelatin silver print, printed 1935-36
25,7 x 21,6 cm
© Nachlass Helmar Lerski, Fotografische Sammlung Museum Folkwang Essen / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
Head of Man in Armor / Kopf eines Mannes mit Helm, ca. 1929-1932
carbon print, printed ca. 1929
49,8 x 48,4 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
MIROSLAV HÁK (1911–1978)
Untitled (Female head lit from below), 1940
silver bromide print, printed 1940s
22,5 x 19,8 cm
© Michael Hák / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
DR. PAUL WOLFF (1887–1951)
Untitled (Frosted waterfall / Vereister Wasserfall), ca. 1931/32
gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1931/32
16,5 x 22 cm
© Dr. Paul Wolff & Tritschler, Historisches Bildarchiv Offenburg / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
ALBERT RENGER-PATZSCH (1879–1966)
Zäunchen im Schnee / Tiny fence in snow, 1927
gelatin silver print, printed after 1945
23,1 x 37,8 cm
© Albert Renger-Patzsch / Archiv Ann und Jürgen Wilde, Zülpich / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018 / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
ALFRED EHRHARDT (1901–1984)
Untitled (Dünenlandschaft), aus der Serie: 'Die Kurische Nehrung', 1934
gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1934
23,6 x 15,4 cm
© Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
Gipfelwächte am Hochschwab, 1912 / 1930s
gelatin silver print on postcard paper, printed ca. 1930s
9,4 x 12,8 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
Winter Forest/ Winterwald, ca. 1912
pigment print, printed ca. 1912
27 x 25,2 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
KARL BLOSSFELDT (1865–1932)
Equisetum hiemale. Winter-Schachtelhalm in 25facher Vergrößerung / Rough Horsetail 25fold enlargement, ca. 1920
gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1920
29,5 x 12 cm
© Karl Blossfeldt Archiv, Ann and Juergen Wilde, VG Bild-Kunst Bonn / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
Stephanskirche, 1910
bromoil transfer print, printed ca. 1910
39 x 10,1 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
ALEXANDER RODCHENKO (1891–1956)
Radio Station Tower, 1929
gelatin silver print, printed before 1956
22,4 x 14,2 cm
© VG Bild-Kunst / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
EUGEN WISKOVSKY (1888–1964)
Kolinské Elektrárny (from the Power Station in Kolin, 1932
gelatin silver print, printed later
37,3 x 27,8 cm
© Jiri Kafka / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
Clouds from the plane (WW I), 1916
gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1916
17,6 x 23 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
Getreidemandln, before 1923
gelatin silver bromide print, printed before 1930, mounted to original mat
29,9 x 40
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
ALFRED EHRHARDT (1901–1984)
Untitled (Dünenlandschaft), aus der Serie: 'Die Kurische Nehrung', 1934
gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1934
23,5 x 14,7 cm
© Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936)
Murtaler (Tiroler Bauern), ca. 1930
silver print postcard, printed ca. 1930
9,4 x 9,3 cm
© Estate of the Artist / Courtesy Kicken Berlin
Exhibition Text
To kick off 2012, Kicken Berlin presents the exhibition Rudolf Koppitz and Other European Masters from January 27 through February 25 as well as a selection from Gundula Schulze Eldowy’s Berlin in einer Hundenacht /Berlin on a Dog’s Night (1977–1990) in Kicken II’s exhibition space.
Rudolf Koppitz (1884–1936) may be considered Austria’s most prominent inner-war-era photographer. His life’s work spans both a variety of pictorialist imagery as well as the clear aesthetic of modernism’s New Objectivity around 1930. His Bewegungsstudie/Movement Study of three black-robed dancers with a female nude from 1925 is his most celebrated image and simultaneously an icon of photo history. The image unites the elegance of the flowing lines of Viennese art nouveau with the precise, sharp gaze of the modern. Koppitz interpreted this motif using various techniques, from rich pigment and bromoil prints to silver gelatin prints.
Less well known but no less bold in their abstraction are the cloud studies taken by the surveillance pilot from an open airplane during World War I. Furthermore, Koppitz’s self portraits hiking through the mountains and pictures of his powerful exposed body attest to a confident, new self-representation of vital physicality in accord with the nature of the mountains. In addition to the artist’s stupendous mastery of such various printing techniques, Koppitz is known for his subtle, strict, and yet harmonious compositions, the spectrum of which ranges from the elegance of the Bewegungsstudien and nudes to the seemingly cropped, monumental abstractions of statuesque figures of the Heimatphotographie (homeland photography) movement from the 1930s.
Koppitz himself considered the triptych of images Mutter und Kind/Mother and Child (his wife Anna with their daughter Liselotte), Bewegungsstudie, and the self-portrait Im Schoße der Natur/In the Lap of Nature to be among his most important works. A large-format version long hung prominently in his atelier. Here the study of fertility, eroticism, and self-perception can be experienced in a more intimate format in three clear silver gelatin prints.
Kicken Berlin embeds the work of Rudolf Koppitz, long-time professor at Vienna’s Graphischen Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt für Photographie, in the context of the Central European avant-garde. In particular his contemporary Heinrich Kühn and Czechs Karel Novak, Josef Sudek, and Frantisek Drtikol and Hungarian Ferenc Háar enrich the Austrian’s aesthetic world with their portraits, nude studies, and still lifes. Works by Karl Bloßfeldt, Albert Renger-Patzsch, and Aenne Biermann focus more specifically on the use of a clear, object-based photography. Koppitz, artist and teacher, was indeed very popular in his own time, as evidenced by his regular participation in the international exhibitions of the renowned amateur photographers movement, with Frantisek Drtikol and Josef Sudek among others. A one-man show travelled through nine venues in the US in 1929; the retrospective Land und Leute/Country and People united over five hundred of the artist’s works in Vienna in 1936, shortly before his death.
Koppitz, one of the twentieth century’s most well-known unknown photographers, together with the avant-gardes of his era, comprise the heart of the exhibition, which is dedicated to his daughter Liselotte (1925–2011). Liselotte, who like her father also completed her photo studies at Vienna’s Graphischen Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt, together with her husband Klaus Tavs worked tirelessly to preserve and process the estate and archives of the photographic family. Indeed her mother Anna worked together with Rudolf Koppitz, and a number of his works can in fact be attributed to her. A selection of works by Liselotte Tavs-Koppitz rounds out the show.
